For UCLA neurosurgeons Linda Liau, MD, PhD, and Langston Holly, MD, their years together as residents at UCLA Medical Center seem like a lifetime ago.
It has been nearly 25 years since they graduated the neurosurgery residency program. Dr. Liau was the only woman in the program, and Dr. Holly was the only Black resident. But they both remember it like it was yesterday.
“I was very impressed by her ability to multitask,” Dr. Holly said of his colleague and friend who is now Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Holly is Executive Vice Chair and also serves as Co-Director of the UCLA Spine Center in Santa Monica where he performs spine as well as brain surgeries.
“It seemed like she was in multiple places at once – the operating room, the emergency room and on the wards. This is a quality that she still has to this day, as she balances a large number of responsibilities both here in our department and nationally in organized neurosurgery.”
Dr. Liau remembers Dr. Holly’s “great attitude and wonderful sense of humor.”
“He often made everyone laugh with his jokes,” she said, adding that they have been kindred spirits, helping and inspiring each other, often through tough times. “We went through many challenges during our residency and our early faculty years…challenges I hope current and future women or people of color in neurosurgery would never have to face.”
But, going through those experiences together have helped them shape their common goals of trying to make things better not just for their department and for UCLA, but also for their entire profession.
Both certainly beat the odds in their chosen field, which has been dominated by white men. Fewer than 4% of all neurosurgeons in the United States are Black. Women make up more than half of graduating medical classes each year and yet, only 6% of board-certified practicing neurosurgeons are women.
The fissures of inequity run deeper at the intersection of gender and race. Black women make up just 0.6% of the neurosurgical workforce in the country. Neurosurgeons of other gender identities and racial groups are so poorly represented in the field that their numbers remain unknown.
Yet Drs. Liau and Holly have illuminated a path forward for others from similar backgrounds. They have guided and mentored aspiring neurosurgeons while sparking and continuing critical conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion in this field.
